1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of rapidly generating and analyzing a plurality of polypeptides. More specifically, polypeptides can be assayed to determine their individual immunogenic effect. Monitoring the immunogenic effect of polypeptides allows skilled artisans to develop specific subunit vaccines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional vaccine technology suffers from the problem that it often produces various degrees of reactogenicity in different hosts. In light of general health concerns and the growing threat of bioterrorism, there is a need to develop subunit vaccines capable of inducing an appropriate immune response in the context of multiple, and genetically diverse hosts. This approach requires the identification of a number of specific antigenic polypeptides. One of the most difficult tasks in developing a vaccine, or any recombinant subunit vaccine, is the identification of the antigens that can stimulate the most effective immune response against a particular pathogen, especially when the genome of the pathogen is large.
As an example, Smallpox, because of its high case-fatality rates and transmissibility, now represents one of the most serious bioterrorist threats. Over the centuries, naturally occurring Smallpox, with its case-fatality rate of 30 percent or more and its ability to spread in any climate and season, has been universally feared as the one of the most devastating of all the infectious diseases. The use of Vaccinia virus as a vaccine enabled the global eradication of naturally occurring Smallpox. The last naturally occurring case of Smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. In May 1980, the World Health Assembly certified that the world was free of naturally occurring Smallpox. Routine vaccination in the United States ended in 1971, and except for some soldiers and laboratory workers, nobody has been vaccinated since 1983. However, due to the present threat of Smallpox being used as a weapon of terrorism, large-scale vaccination may once again be coming to the forefront.
Unfortunately, the use of Vaccinia virus as a Smallpox vaccine has, throughout the Smallpox eradication campaign until the cessation of vaccination in the civilian population in the 1980s, been manufactured using 25 year-old technology. This technology comprises the harvesting of virus-containing material from live vaccinifers. Despite the proven safety record of this method of manufacture, various degrees of reactogenicity have been reported in vaccine recipients. In the current age, when mass vaccination might be an important aim yet immunosuppressive diseases are perhaps more prevalent than ever, a vaccine without the infective properties of a live virus is more critical than ever. An understanding of the full spectrum of a pathogen's immunostimulatory polypeptides would be a key starting point to developing more effective vaccines.